U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,584,962 and 5,580,417 each disclose a laminating and adhesive transfer apparatus. The '417 patent discloses a removable cartridge having a pair of rolls mounted therein and that is configured to be removably mounted to the apparatus frame. The '962 patent discloses an apparatus which is configured to be used with a pair of removable feed rolls. In contrast to being mounted in a removable cartridge, the feed rolls of the '962 patent are individually removably mounted to the apparatus frame. Each of these devices can be used to either laminate a selected substrate or to apply an adhesive to the selected substrate.
To perform an adhesive transfer operation with either device taught in the above patents, both a feed roll having an adhesive transfer substrate coated with an adhesive layer and a feed roll having an adhesive mask substrate are removably mounted to the frame either individually or together in a cartridge. The substrates are unwound and fed through a set of nip rollers. A selected substrate is fed between the transfer and mask substrates and a crank handle is manually operated to rotate the nip rollers. The rotating nip rollers cooperate to apply pressure to the substrates and discharge the substrates outwardly therefrom. The applied pressure causes the adhesive layer to bond to both the selected substrate and the portions of the mask extending around the selected substrate.
The discharged substrates can then be severed and the mask substrate can be peeled away from the transfer and selected substrates. As the mask substrate is being peeled away, the portions of the adhesive layer surrounding the selected substrate remain bonded to the mask substrate and are stripped away from the transfer substrate. The resulting article consists of the selected substrate, the transfer substrate, and the portion of the adhesive layer bonded to the selected substrate. The mask substrate can then be discarded and the selected substrate can be peeled off the transfer substrate for adherence to a desired contact surface. The advantage of the process performed by the apparatuses of the '962 and '417 patents is that it reduces the chances of excess adhesive getting on an operator's hands or other undesired surfaces because all the excess adhesive not bonded to the selected substrate is bonded to the mask substrate and discarded therewith.
Manually peeling back the mask substrate, however, does not entirely eliminate the chances of getting the adhesive on the user's hands or other surfaces due to the fact that the user still must manually handle the mask substrate. Also, the mask substrate may be dropped or otherwise mishandled to cause the adhesive thereon to get on undesired surfaces. Thus, there exists a need for an adhesive transfer device, which can effectively transfer adhesive to a selected substrate and substantially eliminate all chances of sticking extra adhesive to undesired surfaces.
To meet this need, the present invention provides an adhesive transfer apparatus for applying adhesive to a selected substrate. The apparatus comprises a frame, a first feed roll carrying a supply of an adhesive transfer substrate, and a second feed roll carrying a supply of an adhesive mask substrate. The adhesive transfer substrate has a layer of pressure-sensitive adhesive disposed on an adhesive carrying side thereof. The adhesive mask substrate has a bonding side to which the pressure-sensitive adhesive will bond. The first and second feed rolls are rotatably mounted to the frame and are positioned such that the selected substrate can be inserted between the transfer substrate and the mask substrate. In the illustrated embodiment, the feed rolls are removably mounted either directly or indirectly to the frame for replacement when desired, but may be fixedly mounted to the frame as part of a discardable low cost apparatus. Preferably, the feed rolls may be mounted together in a unitary cartridge; however, it is contemplated that the feed rolls may be removably mounted to the frame individually as in the aforementioned '962 patent, the entirety of which is hereby incorporated into the present application by reference.
A take-up roll is rotatably mounted to the frame. The adhesive mask substrate has a lead end portion thereof connected to the take-up roll. The manufacturer may take the appropriate steps to connect the mask substrate to the take-up roll or the end user can unwind the mask substrate and connect the lead end thereof to the take-up roll. As with the feed rolls, it is preferred that the take-up roll be mounted in a unitary cartridge along with the feed rolls; however, it is contemplated that the take-up roll may also be individually mounted to the frame or may be fixed in the frame as part of a low cost discardable apparatus.
A pressure applying assembly is constructed and arranged to apply pressure to the transfer substrate and the mask substrate with the selected substrate inserted therebetween. The pressure applying assembly may have a pair of cooperating pressure applying structures. These pressure applying cooperating structure may be provided by only one nip roller and a fixed opposing structure with which the nip roller cooperates; a pair of cooperating rotatable nip rollers; or a pair of non-rotatable structures disposed adjacent to one another. Examples of such non-rotatable structures may include resiliently flexible wipers that engage the opposing sides of the substrates fed therebetween to apply pressure thereto or rigid fixed or spring-biased members narrowly spaced apart to apply pressure to substrates having more than a minimum thickness fed therebetween. Further, it is possible that the entire pressure applying assembly or portions thereof may be indirectly removably mounted to the frame by a unitary cartridge along with the feed rolls and the take-up roll. This arrangement is advantageous because the substrates on the feed rolls can be pre-loaded into their operating positions by the manufacturer, thus obviating the need for the end user to attempt loading the substrates. However, it is within the scope of the present invention to have the pressure applying assembly be directly mounted to the frame instead of being mounted within a removable cartridge for removable mounting to the frame. Additionally, the adhesive may be coated on the radially outer surfaces of the transfer substrate and the pressure applying assembly may be provided by one or more springs that press the feed rolls directly together in a nip roller so that they function as nip rollers to apply pressure to the selected substrate and affect the adhesive transfer.
The apparatus is constructed and arranged such that, when the selected substrate is inserted between the adhesive transfer substrate and the adhesive mask substrate, an adhesive transfer operation can be performed wherein (a) the transfer substrate, the mask substrate, and the selected substrate are moved together in a feeding direction (b) the pressure applying assembly applies pressure to the transfer substrate and the mask substrate with the selected substrate inserted therebetween to cause the adhesive on the adhesive carrying side of the adhesive transfer substrate to adhesively bond to one side of the selected substrate and to any portions of the bonding side of the mask substrate which extend adjacent the periphery of the selected substrate and are engaged directly with the adhesive layer, and (c) the take-up roll rotates to wind up a discharged portion of the mask substrate to which the pressure has been applied along with any portions of the adhesive layer bonded to the bonding side of the discharged portion remaining bonded thereto and being substantially removed from the adhesive carrying side of the transfer substrate.
It can be thus appreciated that the apparatus of the present invention offers an easy and clean method for transferring an adhesive to a selected substrate. The apparatus of the present invention is advantageous over the apparatuses described above in that the user does not have to manually handle the adhesive mask substrate after the transfer operation has been performed. The mask substrate is simply wound up on the take-up roll, thus obviating any opportunities for the mask substrate to be mishandled or otherwise adhered or stuck to undesired contact surfaces.
Preferably, the feed rolls, the take-up roll, and the nip roller assembly are all mounted together in a unitary cartridge. This arrangement is preferred because it allows the manufacturer to load the transfer and mask substrates into their operating positions before distributing the cartridge to the end user. One of the problems with the known adhesive transfer apparatuses described above is that the end user must align the substrates together and insert them between the nip rollers properly before commencing the adhesive transfer operation. Because the substrates can be preloaded in the apparatus of the present invention, this step is obviated and the end user simply has to insert the cartridge into the machine without any additional intervening steps before commencing the adhesive transfer operation. However, it is to be understood that the principles of the present invention are not limited to such a unitary cartridge and may be broadly applied to any conceivable arrangement irrespective of whether a cartridge is used. Specifically, it is contemplated that the pressure applying assembly may be permanently mounted within the frame and the take-up rolls and feed rolls may be individually removably mounted to the frame. Further, it is contemplated that the two feed rolls may be mounted in a unitary cartridge and the take-up roll may be individually mounted separate from the cartridge. Also, the rolls may be permanently mounted to the frame so that the entire apparatus is discarded when the supplies are spent.
Another aspect of the present invention relates to a removable cartridge for use in a generic master processing apparatus. Specifically, this aspect of the invention relates to mounting the pressure applying assembly within the cartridge itself rather than mounting it within the frame as in known apparatuses such as those disclosed in the '417 and '962 patents. In accordance with the principles of the present invention, this aspect of the invention provides a removable cartridge configured to be used with master processing apparatus for processing a selected substrate. The apparatus comprises a frame and an actuator. The cartridge comprises a cartridge body structure constructed and arranged to be removably mounted to the apparatus frame, a first feed roll rotatably mounted to the body structure and carrying a supply of a first supply substrate, and a second feed roll rotatably mounted to the body structure and carrying a supply of a second supply substrate. A layer of pressure-sensitive adhesive is disposed on at least one of the first and second supply substrates.
A pressure applying assembly has a pair of pressure applying cooperating structures mounted to the cartridge body structure. The pressure applying cooperating structures are constructed and arranged to apply pressure to substrates fed therebetween. The first and second supply substrates are disposed between the cooperating structures with the layer of adhesive disposed between the substrates. The first feed roll, the second feed roll, and the pressure applying assembly are constructed and arranged such that, when the cartridge body structure is removably mounted to the frame, the selected substrate can be inserted between the cooperating structures of the pressure applying assembly and between the portions of the first and second supply substrates disposed between the cooperating structures. The pressure applying assembly is constructed and arranged to be operatively connected to the actuator when the cartridge body structure is removably mounted to the frame such that, after the selected substrate has been inserted between the cooperating structures of the pressure applying assembly and between the portions of first and second supply substrates, operation of the actuator will affect cooperating structure movement so as to (a) perform an adhesive transfer process wherein the selected substrate, the first supply substrate, and the second supply substrate are fed through the pressure applying assembly to affect adhesive bonding between the selected substrate and the supply substrates and (b) discharge the processed substrates outwardly from the pressure applying assembly.
It can be appreciated that an apparatus constructed in accordance with this aspect of the present invention allows the manufacturer to pre-load the substrates to the pressure applying assembly and thus obviates the need for the end user to have to do so him or herself. This arrangement is particularly advantageous for end users who tend to interchange between different types of cartridges often. In the known adhesive transfer apparatuses, the user must unload the supply substrates from the pressure applying assembly and remove the first cartridge and then reload the supply substrates for a second cartridge each time it is desired to change cartridges. With a cartridge constructed in accordance with the principles of this aspect of the invention, the user can simply remove the old cartridge and replace the cartridge with a new cartridge, and continue interchanging therebetween quite easily because there is no need to unload and reload the transfer substrates into and out of a single pressure applying assembly on the apparatus frame.
This aspect of the invention is not limited to adhesive transfer devices and may be practiced in laminating apparatuses, adhesive transfer devices, combinations thereof, or any other master processing apparatus.
Other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description, the accompanying drawings, and the appended claims.